Cookies

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click accept my preferences we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on our website. Visit our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy for more information about managing your cookies.

Sign In

Confirm

London Fire Brigade’s Education Team celebrates 15th anniversary in LFB’s 150th year

14 November 2016

As London Fire Brigade celebrates its 150th anniversary, the Brigade's Education Team celebrates their own 15th anniversary of giving vital fire safety education to children across the capital.

To mark the anniversary, the Education Team will be going into schools and giving vital fire safety messages and raising money for Chelsea and Westminster Hospital’s burns unit.

The Education Team was launched in 2001 to formalise the way the Brigade educate children in primary and secondary schools in Greater London about the dangers of fire.

Since the team’s formation, 1.5 million children have benefitted from interactive educational workshops which deliver fire safety messages in a sensitive and reassuring way.

Officers use their training, experience and expertise to ensure children in year two, year five and year eight understand the importance of home fire safety without becoming unduly worried about a fire happening in their home.

The Education Team forms part of the Brigade’s community safety work and has helped reduce fires by 62 per cent over the last 15 years.

The team’s key role is to explain the important of fire prevention, detection and escape.

In November 2010, two children – then aged 10 and seven years old – escaped from a house fire in East Ham alongside their mother, but sadly their uncle died.

The children, whose school had been visited by the Education Team just two months earlier, remained calm during the incident and remembered what to do to be able to escape safely after the fire broke out.

Sara Perez, Education Team manager, said: “The Education Team’s work is vital in helping to prevent fires across London. The more children we get to see, especially in areas identified as being of greater risk, the more we can reduce the number of injuries and deaths caused by fire. Children who learn about fire safety in schools are less likely to be the victim of a fire in later life.”

London Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson said: “I have always highly valued the great work of our education officers and their contribution to preventing fires and saving lives in London.

“As the Brigade celebrates its 150th anniversary, it is important that we recognise and praise all aspects of the work carried out by London Fire Brigade all our staff.”